Friday was a favorite day for me. Kris and I only had classes until noon. With mom and dad both at work, it left the better part of the afternoon for ourselves, though most often Kris spent hers with the girls on her squad.
We hadn't had time to really discuss what had happened between us, though to some extent I couldn't help wonder if Kris was having second thoughts about it too. She hadn't exactly been avoiding me, but neither one of us had made a point of finding time to talk about it either.
We'd met briefly in the kitchen on our way to school, mom and dad upstairs getting dressed themselves, giving us the only real private time we'd had up until then. I stood waiting for my toast to pop up out of the toaster when Kris came into the kitchen pouring herself a glass of orange juice. I waited expectantly for her to say something first.
"Michelle's coming over after school," she informed me taking a drink of her juice. "We're going to be looking at tapes of South High's cheerleading squad," she continued. "They're our biggest competition for the championships this year. So we want to get an idea of some of the routines they'll be doing to get an idea as to how we can better prepare ourselves in competing against them in the finals."
Having told me that, she'd let me know she and Michelle would be needing to use the den, which effectively shut down my hope of coming home and playing a few video games after school.
"And I suppose that means you'd also like me to stay out of the way," I added grabbing my toast as I began to put butter on it. I had obviously turned away from her in order to do that, looking down at the counter as she spoke.
"It might be better if you weren't even here when she comes over," Kris went on, causing me to look up at her, none too happy about being asked to do that for one thing, though confused as I saw the smile on Kris's face as she stood there.
"Great, so where am I supposed to go?" I responded irritatedly.
"I didn't say you had to go anywhere," she explained without really doing so. "I just said don't be here when we do, or...if you are, don't let her know that you are here then." Kris said cryptically. She saw the puzzled expression on my face, smiling even more broadly towards me. "Unless you want to spoil everything," she tossed out.
"Ok, I'm not following any of this," I told her. "What do you mean, spoil everything?"
Kris sighed in exasperation. "Remember, I told you that once in a while the four of us have gotten together?" She stated without adding the rest of it. Suddenly this was getting interesting as I lifted my eyebrows waiting expectantly for more.
"Yeah?"
"Well just so you know, Michelle is gay, always has been."
"Michelle's a lesbian?" I stated in surprised wonder. "She sure as hell doesn't look like one!" I then added.
"Oh? And just how's a lesbian supposed to look?" Kris retorted back at me. "They're not all Butch Dykes you know!"
"That's not what I meant," I said a bit sheepishly. "It's just that she's really good looking, which you all are," I then added as I saw a brief somewhat hurt look cross her face. "I just never would have guessed that is all, but that still doesn't answer my question either. What's that got to do with my not being here when she comes over?"
Once again Kris shook her head as though I should have some sort of insight and understanding as to where all this was going.
"Because Michelle has never been with me alone before," Kris now added. "And I think she's attracted to me," she further explained. "And am not saying that anything will, or won't happen when she comes over, but it certainly won't, if she knows you're here!"
I knew my eyes were as big around as saucers upon hearing that. Already my mind trying to imagine things for one, as well as the logistics of it, which presented an immediate problem. If in fact they were to be in the den, it had no door on it for one thing, so there was no real way of spying on them without a great deal of risk in being discovered trying to peek around the wall at them.
"Little good that does me," I then told her. "Even if anything does happen, there's no way for me to see it without getting caught!"
Kris finished her juice standing at the sink rinsing out her glass. "Well, that's your problem to figure out," she told me. "But if you, or your cars here when we get here, then nothing will anyway. And like I said, not saying it will either, just saying...it might." With that, Kris grabbed her books off the table and headed out the door, leaving me to stand there and ponder the situation. As I heard Kris start up her car backing out of the driveway, it came to me. I smiled, it would require a bit of effort on my part, but I was pretty sure I had found a way.
**